Rock Hall exhibit lays out Rolling Stone magazine's remarkable impact

CLEVELAND, Ohio - If you've ever wanted to walk to through the pages of Rolling Stone, then the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's new exhibit is for you.

"Rolling Stone: 50 Years," which opens Friday, celebrates a half-century of the magazine that's covered everything from Beatlemania and the Summer of Love to the birth of hip-hop and dawn of the digital music age.

The showcase begins on the Rock Hall's third floor with a recreation of co-founder and publisher Jann Wenner's original office on 746 Brannan St. in San Francisco.

Wenner borrowed $7,500 from family and friends to get the office up and running. The cover price for the first issue of Rolling Stone, featuring John Lennon on the cover, was just 25 cents.

(Read more about the origins of the magazine in our exclusive interview with Wenner HERE)

The museum's top two floors deliver the kind of experience the Rock Hall has made one of its core missions over the past few years. One of the first things you notice is a Table of Contents wall, outlining what you're about to see as if you'd just opened the latest issue of Rolling Stone.

"Random Notes" features a wall full of iconic photos from the past six decades, while the "Letters to the Editor" section collects correspondence that are both shocking and humorous.

Over the years, Rolling Stone has received letters from likes of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Grace Slick and Charles Manson, who was looking to exchange an interview for a free subscription while he was incarcerated.

There's also footage from various movies - "Beverly Hills Cop," "Almost Famous," etc. - that reference Rolling Stone. It's a reminder that this was the magazine "that trashed 'Layla,' broke up Cream and ripped every album Led Zeppelin ever made."

Another video screen plays audio from interviews with artists like Bob Dylan and Pete Townshend, both from Rolling Stone and the Rock Hall's respective archives. A glass panel showcases transcripts from interviews with stars like Michael Jackson, Jerry Garcia, Kurt Cobain and Tina Turner.

Across the way is yet another wall of stunning photographs, highlighting the work of Herb Ritts (Madonna, Mick Jagger), David LaChapelle (Kanye West), Mark Seliger (Green Day, Jay Z) and others.

There's also evidence that Rolling Stone is much more than a music magazine, having conducted landmark interviews with presidents like Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The magazine also wrote about Watergate, multiple wars and the Columbine massacre.

The final stop on "Rolling Stone/50 Years" is the museum's top floor, which was re-structured in 2014 for the "Common Ground: The Music Festival Experience" exhibit.

The intent was to establish a "you-are-there" experience, surrounding visitors with the sights and sounds of historic music festivals. That vision comes to life again with the Rolling Stone exhibit, as you're surrounded wall-to-wall by Rolling Stone covers, all in high resolution and projected on screens.

For anyone who has ever had a subscription to Rolling Stone, it's like visiting old friends. You can easily recall the first time you saw Janet Jackson's boobs covered by just two hands, Ice-T defiantly dressed as a police officer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers wearing well-placed socks, or a naked John Lennon draped over Yoko Ono.

By the time you get to Rolling Stone covers featuring Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift, you realize how far the magazine has come. But you also recognize, after 50 years, Rolling Stone still has a bright future. And that's just as inspiring as anything you see come alive in the new exhibit.

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